Full-face skydiving helmets with fixed face visors were developed and entered the market in the early 1990s. These fixed visor helmets did not allow the wearer to open the face shield while being worn. Flip up visor helmets entered the market in approximately 1995, however the mechanisms used to keep the face shield locked while traveling at speeds of, for example, +300 km/hr were rudimentary and resulted in many visors inadvertently opening during freefall. Such locking mechanisms were often the same as or similar to those used in motorcycle helmet designs.
The airflow that travels over a wearer's helmet while skydiving in a face to earth position is different than that experienced while riding a motorcycle. As a result the use of known motorcycle type face shield lock mechanisms often failed to remain closed during use.
In view of the above discussion, it should be appreciated that there is a need for improved visor locking mechanisms that are well suited for skydiving helmets. While improved locking mechanisms are needed with regard to skydiving helmets, improved locking mechanisms may also be useful for other types of helmets including motorcycle helmets.
It is an object of the present invention to address the problems of the existing protection devices as are described above, and provide a protective helmet with a rotatable visor or face shield that requires two different locking mechanisms to be unlocked before the visor can be raised from a fully down position, such as when skydiving, to prevent inadvertent raising of the visor.
It is another object of the present invention for a single locking mechanism that will allow a face shield to be rotated upward when the single lock is disengaged, to make the face shield more convenient for less hostile environments, such as when riding a motorcycle.
It is another object of the present invention for the locking mechanism to be simple to operate, such as when a user is wearing gloves, easy to assemble and disassemble, and inexpensive to manufacture.
It is another object of the present invention to utilize two locking mechanisms under certain conditions such that if one mechanism fails, the other prevents the visor from being inadvertently raised.
It is another object of the present invention for the visor to be easily locked in place when lowered to a fully down position.